Region's Best Buy stores stay open

Updated 9:23 pm, Saturday, April 14, 2012

WILTON — The Best Buy stores on Route 50 in Wilton and at Crossgates Mall in Guilderland will survive the chopping block as the embattled electronics retailer moves to close four dozen stores nationwide, most of them by the end of May.

Speculation has swirled around whether Minneapolis-based Best Buy would keep either local sites since the company announced late last month it would close 50 stores as part of a new initiative to make its stores smaller. The company believes the strategy will make it more customer-friendly while also saving money. Best Buy, which lost $1.2 billion last year, is targeting $800 million in cost reductions by 2015.

At the time, Best Buy did not identify which stores it would close. But on Saturday, it issued a list of each of the targeted stores, two of which have already been closed.

The list contains only one New York state store — a New York City location on East 117th St.

Outside of New York, the closest Best Buy locations to the Capital Region that will be closed are one on Boston's trendy Newbury Street and another in Wareham, Mass., a town just west of Cape Cod.

When asked if the fact that the Wilton and Crossgates stores are not on the list means those two local stores are safe in the future, Best Buy spokeswoman Kelly Groehler only said the list confirms "the 50 we have said we'll close in 2012."

Most of the stores on the list of 50 will close by May 12. Three won't be closed until late summer.

Best Buy is now searching for a new chief executive after former CEO Brian Dunn resigned in April. Best Buy board member G. Mike Mikan, the former chief executive of UnitedHealth Group, was appointed interim CEO until a replacement can be found.